The silences of the itinerarium peregrinorum 1

Nicholson, Helen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1715-1246 2024. The silences of the itinerarium peregrinorum 1. Buck, Andrew, Kane, James H. and Spencer, Stephen J., eds. Crusade, Settlement, and Historical Writing in the Latin East and Latin West, c. 1100–c. 1300, Vol. 5. Crusading in Context, vol. 5. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, pp. 228-241.

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Abstract

The Itinerarium Peregrinorum 1 (IP 1) is one of the most nearly contemporary Latin Christian accounts of events in the Holy Land in 1187–90, but the author or authors could include only information that was available to them over a very short period of time: between the arrival of Archbishop Baldwin and his entourage in the East in September 1190 until mid-January 1191. Therefore, to some degree at least IP 1 reflects the situation in the crusader camp at a critical point in the Third Crusade, when the siege of Acre appeared to be making little progress, Queen Sybil of Jerusalem was dead, her half-sister Isabel was the yet-uncrowned heir, and the rivalry for the throne of Jerusalem between King Guy (Sybil’s bereaved spouse) and Conrad of Montferrat (who had married Isabel) had reached its peak. The author or authors of IP 1 wrote without hindsight; writing in real time, they did not know how events would work out. This text presents a generally reliable but perplexing narrative, which omits some events mentioned by other contemporary commentators and includes some information which is only partial. This article focuses on five instances. Four are omissions: the coronation of Sybil and Guy in 1186 and Count Raymond III of Tripoli’s role in the fall of the kingdom, the Queen’s role in the defence of Ascalon, Balian of Ibelin’s role in the defence of Jerusalem, and the Templars’ and Hospitallers’ contribution to the defence of the crusader states against Saladin in 1187–89. The fourth instance is an allusion to greater positive contact between the Queen and Conrad of Montferrat, the Queen’s brother-in-law, than other sources admit, although on the other hand Muslim authors indicate that Conrad co-operated more fully with King Guy than IP 1 implies. This article considers whether these omissions and silences were due to lack of information, or deliberate. If deliberate, the decision to omit or summarise certain events suggests that these events were significant to the conflicts and interests of the crusaders at Acre in the winter of 1190–91, before the arrival of Kings Philip and Richard in April and June 1191 respectively.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D901 Europe (General)
Publisher:	Boydell Press
ISBN:	978-1-78327-733-9
Last Modified:	31 Jan 2024 14:56
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/165032

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